Afro Archives explores heritage and identity within UK
society.
It investigates images of black women through promotion of self-expression and confidence to
be who we naturally are. This project seeks to promote and celebrate afro hair by having
inclusive discussions about hair and hair-related experiences with people of all ages,
backgrounds, cultures and creeds.

Big Thanks to Wandsworth Radio, in Battersea, for hosting us.
Wandsworth Radio is a local Community Radio Station. It covers Battersea, Putney, Balham,
Southfields, Earlsfield, Wandsworth Town, Roehampton and Tooting. The Station exists to
celebrate the borough’s greatness. “Over 300,000 people call Wandsworth home and they
deserve a community radio service providing local news and other content showcasing the
people who live here”.

Creator
Ayesha Casely-Hayford is an actress,
award-winning voice artist and employment
lawyer of Ghanian descent, born in London
and raised in Kent. With her roots in law,
specialising in discrimination, and as former
chair of the board of trustees for The Act For
Change Project, a charity campaigning for
greater diversity in the arts, she is uniquely
positioned to see the social, performative
and legal issues facing black women in the
UK today.

Show Ten Transcript
3 August 2018
Guests:
Ms Audrey Odonkor
https://www.linkedin.com/in/audrey-odonkor-48653682/
Audrey recently graduated from Yale University, where she studied Psychology,
concentration in neuroscience. She was born in Ghana is of Ghanian descent, and
currently lives and works there.

that was kind of like the catalyst for it. So I was still keen to have a natural hairstyle, but
I knew in terms of maintenance that I didn’t want to have my fro out because I didn’t
want to maintain it and do all kinds of things with it. And what kind of happened
because of the spaces and events I gravitate towards, I kind of began to see more
women who had sister locs and after a couple of events I went to I finally asked one of
the women in the crowd, what her hairstyle was. I knew it was locs but I knew it looked
noticeably different from the locs that I’m more familiar with. So she explained to me that
it was sister locs and that it was a particular sort of way of locsing the hair that doesn’t
involve using like any other oils of locsing gels so she gave me more information about
it. Then I went and had a consultation.

that it’s not sincere, in the way that they’re approaching me, but it’s something that
never happened before I had locs, like guys would never approach me in that way.
ACH: Before you had locs?
BK: yeah, before I had it, so that was the biggest change like in terms of people who
already knew me, my colleagues at the time, friends, family, erm everyone else was like
Oh my God, I really love my hair. And you know the thing that was really interesting
about it though, is that with sister locs, the first few months are not that great, like your
hair doesn’t look that good, like you have to be really patient, and it’s one of the
reasons why the person who does my hair was like, ok, you need to consider this,
because in the beginning you won’t be happy with your hairstyle, because it takes - it
called maturation, I think that’s the term that she uses, like it takes time for the locs to
mature and properly loc. So when after, about a few months people responded to my
hair and it was looking great and stuff and there was like no negative thoughts and
that but it was just the odd experience with these new men that would come into my life
like I would maybe meet them when they would come to an event or when I was walking
down the street and it was just the response there was very different to how men had
approached me before which I found very very intriguing.

travelling for chats in East Legon, Ghana, and I’ll be introducing you to Audrey. First,
some sounds from Audrey’s heart and inspiration. Here’s Haitus Kaiyote, feating q-tip,
with Nakamarra.

[song: “Nakamarra” Haitus Kaiyote]

[INTERVIEW WITH AUDREY]
Audrey Odonkor: I decided to locs my hair because I got tired of going to the salon
to like do one hairstyle take it off, do one hair style take it off again. And I just wanted
to find a way that I could keep my natural hair without adding any extensions to it for
long periods of time.

ACH: And was there something that inspired you to pic locs? What is it about locs that
enables you to achieve what you wanted?

AO: Oh, there’s so much. Definitely, it’s very cool. I feel like the kinds of people that I
have met in university, at Yale university in the States, who had locs, were like, people
who, they were just cool, and I think, just embraced, like, unconventional ways of thinking
and doing things, you know. And so, I think the kinds of people I met who had sister locs
definitely inspired me to try the hairstyle out. It doesn’t necessarily mean that like if you
have sister locs you are automatically cool, but I think it was definitely a self-selecting
pool of people who seriously considered getting their hair locsed.

ACH: And was there anything or anyone in particularly that made you think locs would
be for you?

AO: Yeah. So back in secondary school I had a friend who chose to locs her hair
around that time. Partly because her mother had locs, and had had locs for a long
time. Her mother is a professor in African Studies at The University, of Ghana, and I think
that she was someone who I felt was
very independent, very articulate, and
who was unashamed to express what
she thought. So seeing that, number
one, this hairstyle was accepted like in
academic circles, and other circles,
and then seeing that it was cool, I
guess [laughs] because of the kinds of
people who I experienced having this, I
felt inspired to start my own journey
and loc my hair.

ACH: And did you have any consultation before you locsed your hair, or did you do
any research about it?

AO: Yes. I did a lot of research online. Where research was looking at people who had
different locs, and, and like trying to gauge how that would suit my face, but beyond
that definitely research about my hair texture and the different sizes people had based
on their hair texture and talking with people who had locs about how they kept their
locs. Beyond that, before locsing my hair I had to go for a compulsory consultation with
the people who were going to locs the hair where they looked at my hair length, looked
my hair texture, and they suggested a size that would suit my hair. That was what I did
before actually locsing my hair.

ACH: And how have you found it since? How long have you had it locsed for?

fuller. So yeah, I think that the process has been a really revealing one, of my own ideas
of this, of my beauty, how beauty is perceived, and what I’m willing to do to see what, or
become what I envisage myself to be or to look like.

ACH: And would you have anything to say to someone considering locsing their hair?

final print of what your locsed hair will be. And, enjoy it, you know. Enjoy the process of
figuring things out, enjoy the process of researching and asking people. Enjoy playing
around with the idea in your head and if you want to go for it, enjoy that as well.

Just

know that it has to be something that you choose and I think that is the beauty of
deciding to sister locs your hair or not, that it is something that you choose, and
something that you know you will be happy with.

ACH: That was my guest Audrey Odonkor who has been sharing with us about her locs.
Hello, I’m Ayesha and this is Afro Archives on Wandsworth Radio. This is our tenth afro
archives show and its a special episode, all about locs, so you can decide “locs it to
you’. Audrey was speak to us from East Legon in Ghana, and before that we had an
introduction to locs and sister locs from Bakita Kasheda, who started her locs journey in
2015. We’ve shared bow the journey and process of locs is unique to the individual
and their hair but also between London and East Legon, the power and empower
sense that the choice of locs brings, is the same. Now to bring a bit of perspective to
this all, I invited one of my very good friends, infact my oldest friend, who I’ve been
hanging out with since I was six years old, Esther Rainbow to talk about locs to.o. Esther
is of English heritage, and she chose to loc her hair a few years back, in her late teens.
Esther openly discussed with me now locs are not part of her culture and shared why
she made the hair decision she did and what her hair means to her now. We’re gonna
go straight into Esther’s interview, then finish up with her song choice that she wanted to
share with us, a bit of fun and sounds from South Africa with Ladysmith Black Mambazo
stay with us.

ER: So my natural hair is curly. It’s not a particularly strong curl, but erm, so if I tie it back
the curl tends to go quite loose. Erm, but yeah it’s got like a natural curl and a natural
wave and if I leave it to grow naturally, it goes into quite nice ringlets.
ACH: and you’ve had dreadlocs before haven’t you? Can you tell us about that
experience and why you had them and how your hair took to having dreadlocs?
ER: Yeah, so I decided to get dreadlocs when I was about 18 and that was mainly
because I was in kind of the alternative scene and the kind of hippy side trance scene
and that kind of vibe so, erm that kind
of went with that image. And I want to
Camden to get my hair dreaded into
locs and they spent many many hours
backcombing and twisting my hair.
And I wouldn’t say first of all it took
amazingly. It kind of looked a bit
dreadlocky and a bit fluffy and it
took research, which I assume was
online, because everything is online
now, but I’m not even sure if it was. But
anyway, and somebody that we read
said if you use beeswax in your hair
then it would take a bit better so for
many months after that, my boyfriend
at the time, would melt hot beeswax
into my hair and then twist it. And
after a few months of doing that, they

ACH: I hope you’ve turned up the volume on that absolutely classic. Thank you Esther.
This is Afro Archives and we’re on our tenth show, a locs special “locs it to you?”. That
was Diamonds on The Soles Of Her Shoes. a song choice from my guest Esther, of English
descent, was talking about how for her knowledge of locs is not passed down, in that
it’s not part of her culture. But my next guest gives us a further interesting dimension. A
woman of Ugandan descent, a fellow lawyer Rebekah Bageya has had her hair in locs
for seven years. But she too had to learn and
discover locs, and didn’t necessarily have
relevant information at her fingertips or as
you’ll hear, in front of her face. But I’ll let you
reach your own conclusions and connect
your own dots, here’s Rebekah, and we’ll be
following her interview with with her song
choice from A Tribe Called Quest Stressed
Out. And perhaps, yeah, lawyer to lawyer, that
song choice was motivated at the time.
Anyway, here’s some insights, from Rebekah.

would get comments from my mum, erm, and English friends and just people in general,
but I when I did not natural I realised that I braided my hair quite a bit and I realised
that I loved having my hair in braids. They suited me, they were manageable. And I felt
they were more versatile than what I was doing when I had my afro so I thought you
know why not just get permanent braids, which would be locs, and thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s was what I did.
In fact I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t even thing, when I started my locs, that my mum even realised that I was
locsing my hair, because I think if she had realised at the time. then she would have
freaked out, because again it goes back to being presentable.

ÂŠ 2018 Ayesha Casely-Hayford

Page 22 of 27

ACH: Explain that a bit more, what was your mum’s issue with locs? Or, what do you think
your mum’s issue would have been?
RB: I think it would have been because when it comes to locs there’s still quite negative
connotations with Rastafarianism, and then kind of adjacent to that comes the more
negative aspects, well, not necessarily negative aspects, but a negative aspect is
somebody whose unkept or you know lacks pride in their appearance, it’s just very
negative things.
ACH: You have sister locs, rather than traditional dreadlocks don’t you?
RB: Well actually, I have, they’re not actually sister locs, and I get that a lot. I get that
all the time, they’re just normal locs, like palm rolled locs, but they’re thin.
ACH: Is that from consultation and relevant to your hair texture?
RB: Erm. there was a form of
consultation. I have to admit I
was a little bit oblivious as to
what was going on, I went to a
hairdressers to have them
installed, or get them done and
they just twisted my afro hair,
and I did wonder about how
they were going to select the
size. I didn’t want big ones, I
didn’t think that would suit me,
and I didn’t want teeny tiny
ones, I didn’t want sister locs because I thought that would be too much maintenance.
ACH: So you specifically chose not to have sister locs?

RB: I specifically chose [not to]. Because with sister locs there’s a process of interlocing,
and I didn’t think I could do that myself, you would have to go to a hairdresser and on
the other spectrum I didn’t want to do free form locs, where you don’t section it and it’s
not as kind strategic as what I’ve got now. That also for me is kind of, for the career
that I wanted to pursue ACH: that being law RB: That being law - I just didn’t think that that would work. And I just hadn’t seen
anybody with freeform locs, there wasn’t that representation of free form locs that would
be a positive representation.
ACH: Was there a positive representation of the tradition locs, or would you consider
yourself a bit of a pioneer in that? Where was your inspiration?
RB: I think, well, pioneer sounds so egotistical! I personally didn’t know anyone who had
locs, there wasn’t anyone I could look at and say “Oh I want locs!”. If I saw someone on
the train, or out and about, I would kind of stare, and I notice that I get that now in
return. But it just wasn’t something that was around. And actually it wasn’t until quite late
in my career that I saw barristers, quite senior barristers with locs, and I was
flabbergasted! I was like, oh, I could have done this much earlier, I was so surprised. And
the time that I did do it, when I was looking for inspiration on where to go, to do it, I erm,
did a lot of googling, and I remember that one of the first [search result] places I got
from it was in Camden, and it was, it wasn’t for Afro Caribbean hair. And I was really
surprised.
ACH: It wasn’t?
RB: It wasn’t! I don’t think it was exclusively for Europeans, but it was clear that it was a
place for European people or people with European hair to get locs. And I found that
really confusing. And I found even if I was trying to look for pictures of people with locs,

grey, in terms of locs, like which patches it will start in. And I think that can be quite an
empowering process in itself as well.

ACH: Ladies and gentlemen, that is the end of Afro Archives Show 10. Thank you to my
guests Bakita, Audrey, Esther and Rebekah and thank you Nicolette who preceded me
with Mind Your Business. And here is Stressed Out, featuring Faith Evans. A Tribe Called
Quest: